Its been a week since we said goodbye to Abby. Its been a week since I last held her, gave her a hug and a kiss. Its been a week, but it feels like yesterday I was just bringing her home for the first time. And we were just teaching her how to sit, speak, dance and give high fives. I will think of her every time I eat peanuts, popcorn or french fries. All her favorites.Oh, and we cant forget the pizza crusts. She loved her treats! After a while she thought she deserved a treat for just playing with her toys with you. When she was done playing she would run straight to the pantry like "ok mom give me my treat now". I remember one time I was throwing old bread into the yard for the birds. Well I was standing in the door way when I did so and I saw this little red flash dart between my legs and by the time I looked up into the yard I saw Abby out there eating ALL the bread I had just thrown! She rarely barked and that caused her to get trapped in closets a lot of times. You'd happen to walk by and hear this tiny little scratch on the door. You'd open to find an excited Abby so overjoyed to see you that her butt was shaking faster than her little nubbin of a tail. She LOVED blankets. Anyone with a blanket instantly became her best friend. She was good at finding the perfect spot too, might not be comfortable for you but that's just how it went. She would climb all over you especially while you were sleeping, to get snuggled in. She really was the best snuggler, Id give all my possessions to just snuggle with her again. I know she is in a safe happy place now, but that does not mean that I don't just want her here with me. My brother said "Nico I dont think we found Abby, I think she found you. She was looking for someone to love her like you did." I don't know how such a small creature could love us all that much. I still have so much more love to give her. She came into my life when I needed her the most and she was a bridge to a happier fuller life.I was 19 years old with so much growing up to do and she was there thru it all. She was there thru the bad times and the good. She was there for my travels, life changes, marriage, first home and when I gave the exciting news to Greg that we were expecting. She was always there.Memories and pictures of Abby are like gold to me. I never took her for granted and I was always sure to say goodbye and that I loved her because I never knew. She was a fighter and there were a few times that we thought we were going to lose her. But she fought thru it and came out stronger. If she could of stayed another 60 years I know she would have. She really gave me some of the best years and I will cherish them forever. I love you Abby. We all do.
There is so much to talk about when it comes to Europe. I have posted so many pictures on Facebook so I apologize that I wont be posting as many on the blog. We started our trip by flying into Paris France, We enjoyed a nice picnic at the Eiffel tower around sunset with a bottle of wine we snuck in. We spent a lot of time at the louvre museum visited the Notre Dame Cathedral checked out the Rodin Museum (the thinker). We also visited the Palace of Versailles. It was so sunny and hot the few days we were in Paris! We were really looking forward to the cool weather in Germany. We took a train to Munich Germany.We walked around the Marienplatz the central square of Munich.We ate at the HofbrÀuhaus brewery twice. Once for dinner and once for lunch. We made some awesome new friends which we plan to meet up with in DC soon. The liter steins gave us a work as we drink to every new Bavarian song played! Our hotel said it had AC, but AC turned out to be the smallest little fan in the corner of the room. Thankfully with the rain we didn't need it we had a nice cool breeze. We spent a day hiking around the neuschwanstein castles!We took a tour of the castle Disney based his castle for sleeping beauty off of. It was enchanting;) We took the most luxurious short flight into Austria and then headed to Italy! We loved the historical feeling all of Europe had but it was really an awesome feeling to witness things that you read about and studied as an Art major to see in life! Greece was just as amazing and we were sure to drink to poseidon, that became our long running joke and still makes us laugh now!